Britains Oddest Prison Ever

In jolly old England, of the 1700’s a person who did so much as to cut down a tree, or steal a rabbit, could face the death penalty. This merry little law was called “The Bloody Code” and included some 222 crimes for which a person could be killed. Gawd Blimey. Children were not immune, and there are even cases where children as young as 7 were hung for theft. Pity.

With poverty at an all time high, population growth exceeding London’s ability to house its people, and a general lack of a police force or prison system, England was not a terrific place at the time. After a while people even thought that hanging was too extreme and issued a new punishment for many crimes. That punishment was “Transportation”.

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Initially convicts where shipped off (mostly as slaves) to the United States. In fact over 60,000 of them made their way to US soil until the American Revolutionary War brought that to an end.

Luckily enough Australia had been discovered by 1770 and made a wonderful alternative as a way to get rid of some of the excess trouble makers.

In May of 1787 the first trip transporting criminals and colonists set out on its voyage to Australia. It was a long trip, and involving 11 ships, with convicts outnumbering crew and colonists combined. There were 775 criminals, and 645 other people, including children of crew and settling families.

They arrived in Botany Bay in January 1788, and soon relocated to what is now Sydney. Times were tough, mortality was high.

A lot of people imagine the scenario where the criminals were simply let loose to run amok over all of Aussie land, this was simply not the case. Most of the prisoners were used as slave labor, to build the colony, and an actual prison, many starved to death doing it.

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Freemantle Prison officers quarters and guard room.

Over the next eight years roughly 165,000 convicts were transported to Australia, and even more came as colonists. If a criminal were especially bad, they were shipped off to Tasmania, as with our friend Bill Thompson shown below.

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Other Facts

• Murder and Prostitution were not punishable by Transportation.

• Most criminals sent to Australia were non-violent, petty thieves.

• Shipment of criminals to Australia ended in 1868.

• The youngest female convict was Mary Wade, who was transported at the age of 11.

• Some convicts did escape, others earned their freedom.

• Many prisoners have descendants in Australia today, as many Australians can trace their family tree back to one or more of them.

• Gold rushes in Australia brought more and more settlers.